Ok, I don’t have a pic for our Halloween dinner, so I’ll just link to the two recipes we used. The shrimp and pasta was great. When you’re making it you think the sauce isn’t going to be that great or flavorful - it just doesn’t look like much. But when you get it in the bowl and tossed it’s a great light flavor. The squid ink pasta was great - kind of a slimy texture but a bit richer than regular semolina pasta. I found this at Buon Italia in Chelsea Market. I’ve also seen it in Dean&Deluca, which might be closer to you if you’re not in NYC. The Pumpkin crumb cake was also a hit. Don’t be intimidated by all the steps, it’s really not that hard, just follow carefully. The vanilla cake was nice and moist, the pumpkin filling was just sweet enough and the crumb top was a nice crunch. I highly recommend both of these recipes. This was about as celebratory as we get for Halloween so we were quite happy!

If you’re in the NYC area and you need your knives sharpened - here you go! I took mine yesterday - I’d never had it done since I bought mine about 2 years ago. I’m excited to get cooking today and see the difference. Keeping your knives sharp is so key to cooking well and it just makes it easier. Margery Cohen is at Chelsea Market in front of Bowery Kitchen Wednesdays and Saturdays. Plan on leaving your goods with her for a bit and doing some shopping - it took about 45 minutes for 5 of my knives, which I was impressed with. Her website is here.

Bobby Flay and the DJ

I don’t have a dinner recipe for last night, but I feel I have a good excuse. Johnathan and I had tickets to the Food Network Wine and Food Festival opening party at Chelsea Market. We got all dressed up (which rarely happens) and enjoyed an amazing night of wine, lots and lots of wine, and food from the Chelsea Market Vendors. It’s every foodies dream. The lights were low, wine glasses were always full, people chatted excitedly, the music changed from a string quartet to a bluegrass band, to a thumping DJ. It was packed, and at points we had to shuffle through but would stop frequently to refill our glasses and feast on gourmet treats from savory to sweet. Plus, Bobby Flay was personally doling out gourmet burgers, Guy Fieri was walkin’ around followed by a camera and a crowd. I also spotted Anne Burrell, and Dale from season 4 of Top Chef. It was also rumored that Giada and the Neeleys were there, but that was unconfirmed. My favorite stops of the night were The Green Table, who kept bringing out nibbles made of their famous local, organic ingredients. Another was Chelsea Market Baskets who had amazing cheese samples served by the cheese makers paired with some decadent chocolates and sparkling rosé. We met two lovely women, mother and daughter from Greenville who we showed around for the night, and a great time chatting with. I think as New Yorkers it’s our civic duty to be friendly and show people a good time who are visiting our great city. Anyway, there was no skimping at this party - 2 different bands, a DJ (pictured above with The Flay), full bars, lots of different wines, and a great gift bag from Bowery Kitchen, and of course food celebrities. If you can get to any of the other festivities this weekend, I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Next year we’ll be there again, and probably buy a few more tickets to some other events!